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Root cause - asking Why
This is a continuation of the purpose of life article that describes how motivations will inevitably be a part of any animal capable of significant learning.
An alternative approach to finding a simple "purpose of life" is to take any given behavior and ask "why" repeatedly in order to reach a "root cause". If there is a "root cause for everything", that would be the purpose of life.
Unfortunately, this method doesn't work very well.
When the word "why" is used as a request for a cause, the question "why" can be repeated ad-infinitum without ever reaching an original cause. As an example, "why the bridge fell down" might be because one of the pillars was weak. And why the pillar was weak was because the cement wasn't formulated correctly. And why the cement wasn't formulated correctly was... (etc., etc.).
When it comes to getting a person to agree to some behavior or goal, "why" is more typically a question regarding motives. So if a person asks "why should they follow some particular purpose" they are really asking what motives it would appeal to if they were to follow it. But this creates a problem! He wanted to derive a purpose that is independent of the person's motives, but inevitably he is forced to justify that purpose in terms of the person's motives.
Ask a person, for example: "Why does pain hurt so much?" The most likely answer you'll get (after a moment of stunned silence) is "That's just the way it is."
It is peculiar that a person would even try to answer that question, because the question doesn't make sense. Pain is a kind of motivation, and hurt is a synonym for pain. Now consider the question "why," which in this context means "by what motive." Thus, we can reword the question to read:
By what motive is the motive pain a motive?
As you can see, the question is silly because the question is its own answer.
This brings me back to the point that was made at the "purpose of life" web page. Happiness itself is the purpose underlying all purposes, and happiness comes from within. As explained there, a motivational system is inevitable for any learning creature, and the aggration of the motivational fulfilment over time is happiness.
If perhaps you could go way back in time and find some original intent for the creation of life on this planet, that still wouldn't necessarily mean that people would necessarily want to fulfil that intent. It may seem like a very arbitrary goal.
Indeed, if you adopt any arbitrary goal that detracts from your happiness, you will soon be under mental pressure to drop that goal. Or you will try to "rationalize" the situation, finding excuses for deviating from the goal while trying to convince yourself that you are still following it. Ultimately, people are desire-driven learning creatures, and happiness is most effectively derived by learning how to cooperate effectively together for their mutual satisfaction.
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